The best neuroscience research news from January 2018

This month’s collection of the best neuroscience articles includes advancements of experimental techniques, as well as research developments that have the potential to improve treatments of a number of neurological disorders.

Developments in PET imaging have enabled scientists at the University of Cambridge to show that the protein tau starts in one place in the brain then spreads, destroying nerve cells and causing symptoms of Alzheimer’s to get progressively worse.

This suggests that disease progression could be halted by stopping the movement of tau.

2. Scientists map mammalian neural microcircuits in precise detail

Scientists at the Francis Crick Institute have developed a new technique to map microcircuits in the brain. The technique, which uses “nanoengineered electroporation microelectrodes” (NEMs), enabled researchers to map all 250 cells that make up a microcircuit in the olfactory bulb of the mouse brain.

7. Alzheimer’s drug turns back clock in powerhouse of cell

The Salk Institute have identified the molecular target of J147, a potential Alzheimer's drug, as ATP synthase in mitochondria. By binding to this mitochondrial protein, J147 slows or reverses Alzheimer’s progression in mice, and makes mitochondria healthier and more stable.

The results suggest that this drug could be used not just to treat Alzheimer’s, but also other age-associated diseases.

8. Slow and late evolution of the human brain

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have found that the characteristic round skull of modern humans developed relatively recently in the evolution of Homo sapiens.

The development of a rounder skull is mainly due to the parietal lobe in the cerebellum bulging, as well as an increase in the cerebellar bulge. These changes in shape were independent of the size of the brain; the oldest Homo sapiens fossils have a brain size similar to today’s modern humans.

9. Cells hack virus-like protein to communicate

A protein encoded by a viral gene uses its virus-like structure to move information between cells. This form of cell communication could be essential for long-term memory formation.

Two research groups, at the University of Utah and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, discovered this communication separately while studying extracellular vesicles in mice and flies.

They found that many extracellular vesicles released by neurons contain a gene called Arc, and mice engineered to lack Arc had problems forming long-term memories. This gene is linked to many neurological disorders.

10. Epilepsy linked to brain volume and thickness differences

In the largest ever neuroimaging study of people with epilepsy, led by UCL and the Keck School of Medicine of USC, it has been shown that epilepsy involves reductions in grey matter volume and thickness in multiple regions of the brain.